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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 07-30-2009 PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting July 30, 2009 Convened: Adjourned: 3:36 p.m.5:10 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m. in Conference Room # 3, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Bruce Colton, State Attorney Commissioner Chris Craft Becky Bleyman for Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Mike Davis for Thomas Mark, Department of Corrections John Romano, New Horizons Ken Mascara, Sheriff of SLC th Tom Genung for Chief Judge Roby, 19 Circuit th Judge Philip J. Yacucci, 19 Circuit Trevor Morganti for Major Pat Tighe Members Absent: Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Diamond Litty, Public Defender Steve Levin, Chief Judge Janet Collins, Bail Association Thomas Mark, DOC Pat Tighe, Major Others Present: Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator; Joe Smith, Clerk of the Courts; Theresa Bailey, SAMH; Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer; Dan Rodgers, DJJ-Circuit 19 Toby Long, SLSO; Broderick Underwood, SLC Analyst; Phill Broder, State Attorney’s Office Tanya Green, Clerk’s Office; Allison Duffy, SLC Drug Lab; Lisa Savage, SLC Pre-Trial Program Robin Nguyen-Curby, New Horizons; Stepanie Cecilio, Clerk’s Office; Gale Ivey, Clerk’s Office Craig Mundt, Planning & Zoning; Eva O’Donnell, Comm. Craft’s Aide APPROVAL OF MINUTES: There were no minutes to approve for April 30, 2009. Mark Godwin lacked an assistant for a few months. Public Safety Coordinating Council July 30, 2009 Page 2 UPDATE by SLC Sherriff’s Office- Sheriff Mascara: Jail population is averaging around 1400 per day. We are averaging 150 inmates less per day than last year. This can be due to people relocating. There is a disturbing trend of rising female population. We were at 250 yesterday…18% of total jail population. Only 31 of 250 are sentenced, the rest are waiting to be sentenced. The VOP population is 27% of total inmates. There was discussion about two troubling inmates who may be been sent out for medical conditions. Both are high risk pregnancies. One may be released on GPS and the other may be hospitalized for 6 to 8 weeks. Sherriff Mascara will work with Lisa Savage, Pre-Trial Manager if needed. UPDATE by Criminal Justice Coordinator- Mark Godwin: Mark introduced Allison Dufffy who is the Drug Court Manager. He also introduced Carlene Filippini who is his new Senior Staff Assistant. Mark gave statistics from the SLC Detention Center monthly summary hand out (see attached) The average length of stay is 101 days for felons and 46 days for misdemeanors. This attributes to the clearance rate which is 56% with a yearly average of 67%. Clearance rate means we have more cases coming into the system than can be cleared by the courts. The courts are overwhelmed which backs up the length of stay. Unemployment rate continues to grow and is at 14.1%. Mark spoke of topics covered at the “Criminal Justice Reinvestment” conference in Orlando. Grant funds covered this trip. Broderick and SLC were recognized as the best data tracking system in Florida. Broderick also built a system for drug court. Commissioner Craft said great presentation by Broderick. He represented SLC well and proud of the job he did. This is a reflection of all the great things we have going on in our circuit. At the conference Judge Melanie Mayes and Sandra Adams presented a session on drug court expansion legislation and how it will affect our area. The discussion included guidelines as more individuals may be eligible for drug court. Mark discussed the drug lab and how it is suffering from a large number of write off’s coming from the court system. Mark and Allison met with Judge Shack to discuss this matter. The court is going to re-access the individuals’ ability to pay. We need those who can pay to offset the cost of those who can’t. With more frequent testing drug use will go down. In June there were $8,370 in write offs ordered by the court because individuals deemed to be indigent. Public Safety Coordinating Council July 30, 2009 Page 3 JUDICIAL UPDATE Commissioner Craft addressed the importance of the data base Broderick developed. If we are going to achieve funding from feds in the future it is because of the data base. We are one of the few courts who have done such detailed recording. It will really tell the story when we go for these grants in the future. Let’s make sure other districts are putting together those data bases because this is a program that needs to be expanded and not cut. That’s really a concern if everyone is not doing a good job of recording, they could get us all in trouble. Judge Yacucci met with the Clerk of Court, Joe Smith and his people to see if they can facilitate some things. The Domestic Violence Diversion program and the Drug Court program are a great success. Judge Yacucci, Clerk Smith, Sheriff Mascara, Mr. Colton and other panel members discussed the in court docketing system and benefits of getting the defendant information to the jail in an expedited manner. They also discussed the challenges they face in doing so in regards to the paperwork flow. Commissioner Craft would like to revisit this topic next month. PRESENTATION BY JOHN ROMANO CEO- NEW HORIZONS John introduced his CFO Julie Dolan, she will attend these meetings in the future if John is unable to. Please see attached presentation. In regards to healthcare reform and parity, John is asking the community to support comprehensive parity for mental health and addiction services. Commissioner Craft asked if it would help if this board took a position or made a recommendation to the BOCC to support this and send a resolution to these organizations to help give them extra leverage. Mr. Romano said yes and agreed to draft a letter to the legislation delegation to Tallahassee and Washington with all board members to sign off on it. OLD BUSINESS Mark Godwin briefly discussed Senator Webb’s congressional bill. Please see attached. NEW BUSINESS Becky Bleyman from CORE announced the opening of a new office in Port St. Lucie. Mark Godwin complimented employees of the CORE program. Commissioner Craft, Mr. Colton, Judge Yaccuci , Sheriff Mascara and other panel member discussed new rule of procedure regarding first appearance. They spoke of alternative ways to deal with the number of cases coming into first appearance. Also discussed were options of Public Safety Coordinating Council July 30, 2009 Page 4 developing a new process to deal with cases after they have been incarcerated several days. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m. Submitted by, Carlene Filippini THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD September 24, 2009